Stay Connected

My Instagrams...

I guess I have been living under a rock, because it was until recently that I was introduced to the urban Acronym FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. I chuckled for a couple of reasons:

1. Of course there is an Acronym.

2. I used to have FOMO. Actually, I suppose I still have an occasional Facebook-inspired flareup, which is immediately followed by resentment and guilt. Yeah, it kind of sounds like an addiction.

I guess I should go ahead and say it: My name is Kate, and I am a recovering Fear-of-Missing-out-er.

I suffered from a severe case of FOMO through my late teens and much of my twenties. I was clearly in a “searching” phase of my life, and I suppose I thought I would find whatever it is I sought, anywhere other than where I was.

(Hmm. I think there is a yoga message in that sentence.)

The strongest FOMO related memories circle around my seemingly unyielding drive to always be out and social. I never wanted to leave the party early. Ever. This was partially related to an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, but it was mostly due to FOMO. Every evening, my girlfriends and I would put on our party clothes and hit the scene. The Same. Old. Scene. Ugh, I want to shower just thinking about it.

But, thank my lucky stars, I finally did leave the party.Aside from the fact that nothing good ever happened after midnight, there was never anything that wasn’t worth missing, besides the only thing I was ever missing…..THE MOMENT.

(Yup, there is definitely a yoga message coming.)

So, I am pretty sure that having FOMO strongly suggests that you are already missing out on a hugely important aspect of life: the here and now.

Fortunately, given time, some of us grow out of it.However, I still see people my age and older stuck in the same patterns, attached to the illusion that life is happening somewhere other than here and sometime other than now. So, clearly, we can’t count on time and evolution to beat FOMO…. We need a strategy.

Diagnosis: FOMO.

Rx: Yoga.

Do yoga, and meet the moment.

I will close with this, My boyfriend tweeted a quote the other day about time: “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” -Confucius.

Someone replied with, “Don’t go too slow or you might run out of time!”